- Case
Possible plagiarism and fabrication
…from another country. The authors had changed the number of patients, the type of surgery, the regimen of drug A, and they had added a fourth group (drug C). However, the author of the first paper identified similarities between the two publications. After having read both papers very carefully the editor came to the following conclusions: 1. Most of the second paper uses literally identical… - Case
An author thinks that a journal’s decision not to publish is ethically incorrect
…already known to the public through no fault of the author. The author had also added a handwritten addendum, stating s/he accepted the agreement “to the extent that my academic freedom to report findings of scientific and public health importance is not compromised.” On peer review the science of the paper was judged to be sound. The journal’s legal advisor had some concerns about publication; legal… - Case
Dispute among authors
…all the members of the team and make a decision about submission of the data based on the majority opinion. The majority (95%) of members provided support; of those who did not, X was one. The journal sent the manuscript out for external peer review, and wrote to the corresponding author to invite a revised manuscript, adding that the journal could not proceed to publication unless the authorship… - Case
Publication of papers from industry sponsored symposium
Our scientific/medical Society added a Special Symposium to its Annual Meeting Program. The symposium organiser, who is an academic member of the Society, invited seven speakers, all from academic institutions, in addition to himself to speak at the symposium. Support for the symposium as a whole was solicited independently by the Development Committee of the Society and had no influence on… - Case
Stolen article
…inadvertently leaked by an unnamed medical company they work with. We told the authors of article A that in future they must declare the role of any company in their research and consider if this may be a conflict of interests. They said their article was previously submitted 4 years ago to another publisher of journal C, who rejected it. We confirmed this with the publisher, who added that their… - Case
Authorship dispute involving a commercial institution
…Unfortunately, the main institution where the research took place is a commercial laboratory, and the last author of the manuscript is the chief executive officer of this business. The last author has been clear that they do not agree to adding the complainants as authors. In fact, they have stated that they are going to sue the complainants for their allegations. The journal has reached out to… - Case
Temporary exception to double anonymised review policy
…still be submitted as revisions. The editorial team is now debating whether it is ethical to send revisions of the manuscripts to reviewers we should assume know the identity of the corresponding author. Finding new reviewers familiar with the subject area will delay the process. New reviewers may make additional requests of the authors, adding to their burden and further delaying the process. We… - Case
Boundaries of duplicate submission
…'Reject with resubmission allowed'. It would be preferable to use 'Revise' if a journal is willing to see a revised paper and 'Reject' if they are not. Also, if the journal does not want this type of behaviour, this should be added to the journal guidelines and instructions to authors.… - Case
Should we allow pseudonymous authorship?
…a statement saying that the author’s views are not connected to their employer is what we would need to do. Authors being in dispute with their employer or wanting to distance themselves from their employer, privacy concerns, or controversial content would not be considered acceptable reasons for using a pseudonym. The editor suggested to the authors that a statement be added to the article saying… - Seminars and webinars
Webinar 2021: Diversity, equity and inclusion
…published paper? In this single-response question, the majority of the audience (73%) had not encountered any situations of offensive material. However, in those that had, 85% of experiences resulted in retractions, suggesting that whenever issues are raised, the concerns are legitimate enough to require intervention. Yes several times – 7 Yes once – 16 No, it came… - News
In the news: December 2018 Digest
…="http://retractionwatch.com/2018/11/28/majority-of-journals-editorial-board-resigns-after-publishers-handling-of-letter-about-move-to-open-access/" target="_blank">editorial. A Corrigendum was issued after legal threats by copyright holders of a mobile app who demanded new acknowledgements, references and warnings to be added. Interestingly, the… Foreword, COPE Report 2005
…their houses in order. Two things at least are at stake: the public’s trust in biomedical science and, since research feeds into patient care, the public’s safety. What is COPE’s role in all of this and what has it contributed in 2005? COPE was established in 1997 as an ad hoc self help group for medical journal editors. Since then it has grown into a properly…FORUM DISCUSSION TOPIC: comments please
…approval, added below. Please login as a member or register as a non-member to post comments…- Case
Salami slicing/duplicate publication
…editor might like to look at intent and perhaps have a discussion with the author to get clarification. A correction could be added to the second paper to indicate that it is linked to the previous paper. Retraction would only be appropriate if there was intent to slice the data or if there is major overlap in the results in papers from journal A and B and if the first paper is not cited. What peer review means in the arts, humanities and social sciences: Forum discussion topic June 2020
…href="https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/6648412967995945996" target="_blank">register for the Forum by Monday 1 June 2020. Your comments Please do leave any comments below, whether or not you are planning on joining the meeting. Comments are reviewed and, on approval, added below. Please login as a member or register as…- Case
Publication of correspondence relating to a paper currently online
…the letters are published. As one piece of correspondence has become formalised as a letter, if this is from the complaining side, the authors should have the right of reply. An editorial note could eventually be added for transparency. … - Case
Request for removal for one author but a coauthor cannot be reached
…a conflict of interest at a new job, then that could be added as a conflict of interest if at the time of the research the author was also pursuing activities that may have affected the research, and the authors and possibly peer reviewers may need to revisit the validity of the paper. If it is a new conflict of interest, there could be an editorial note saying exactly which part/s of the paper that author… - Case
Conflicting authorship in a collaboration
…a comment and Author A provided a reply to the comment. Both the comment and the reply were evaluated by an independent referee who recommended that Researcher Y should rewrite the comment by omitting all unnecessary “comments” and focus on the science and methods. The independent referee said the reply should concentrate on clarifying and/or disproving if possible the comment. The referee added: “Both… - Case
Seven plagiarized manuscripts in one month by the same corresponding author
…in chief checked the manuscript and found that the author had completely copied it from a previously published article although it was stated in the cover letter that the material had not been previously published or submitted elsewhere for publication. The author only changed the author names and added their own and the second author's names (A and B). There were no common authors, and the… - News
Case discussion: Editor manipulation of impact factor
…referencing (giving full bibliographic details in the reference list at the end). The case provides a reminder that everyone involved in the scholarly enterprise is expected to know how to present work ethically, cite sources appropriately, and reference those sources to allow others to verify information and read further. A degree of self-citation is expected, but adding or suggesting the addition of…